Product Description

An impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith.

This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior and sometimes-heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion—an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need. He calls on us to invoke that need in taking a secular humanistic approach to solving the problems of this world.

Natalie Angier wrote in the New York Times: "The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated….Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2502 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
Sam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil's in the details, then you'll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message.

Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave "something more" we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author' musings.)

Harris' heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.--Ed Dobeas

From Publishers Weekly
In this sometimes simplistic and misguided book, Harris calls for the end of religious faith in the modern world. Not only does such faith lack a rational base, he argues, but even the urge for religious toleration allows a too-easy acceptance of the motives of religious fundamentalists. Religious faith, according to Harris, requires its adherents to cling irrationally to mythic stories of ideal paradisiacal worlds (heaven and hell) that provide alternatives to their own everyday worlds. Moreover, innumerable acts of violence, he argues, can be attributed to a religious faith that clings uncritically to one set of dogmas or another. Very simply, religion is a form of terrorism for Harris. Predictably, he argues that a rational and scientific view—one that relies on the power of empirical evidence to support knowledge and understanding—should replace religious faith. We no longer need gods to make laws for us when we can sensibly make them for ourselves. But Harris overstates his case by misunderstanding religious faith, as when he makes the audaciously naïve statement that "mysticism is a rational enterprise; religion is not." As William James ably demonstrated, mysticism is far from a rational enterprise, while religion might often require rationality in order to function properly. On balance, Harris's book generalizes so much about both religion and reason that it is ineffectual.
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Review
An important book, on a topic that…should not be shielded from the crucible of human reason. -- Natalie Angier, The New York Times Book Review

At last we have a book that…links Islamic terrorism with the irrationality of all religious faith. -- Peter Singer, author of The President of Good and Evil

Harris's tour de force demonstrates how faith threatens our very existence…A must read for all rational people. -- Alan Dershowitz, author of America on Trial

Here is a ringing challenge to all Americans. -- Joseph C. Hough, Jr., President, Union Theological Seminary, New York

Will strike a chord with anyone who has ever pondered the irrationality of religious faith and its cruel, murderous consequences. -- The Economist

[Harris] writes with such verve and frequent insight that even skeptical readers will find it hard to put down. -- The San Francisco Chronicle

Customer Reviews

From a former christian
What I liked most about this book was the discuss on religious moderates. I once was a devout believer who took serious everything in the bible , it was quite an experience. The deeper my devolution grew the more difficult it became to live in the real world. I began to see satan in everything; education was evil because they taught evolution which contracted the bible; pop culture values demeaned the traditionalist lifestyle and even my parents rejected strict conformity to christianity. I struggled mightily between rational understanding and religious practice, and I was going insane. I began judging others and myself in accordance to strict fundamentalist religiosity which caused difficulties in all my relationships and took me out of mainstream society. This lifestyle had an enormous emotional and mental cost however I eventually came to the understanding the any belief in the supernatural is ill-rational. The End of Faith makes the point that religious moderates ignores these realities of dogma and in doing so support fundamentalism. We now live in a time where radicals such as I was can access dangerous technologies to destroy cities for their apostasy, as a former militant evangelical I say this is something we all should be concern about. It is my hope that this book furthers that consideration.

It actually worked!
I had been a Christian for 20 years - the evangelical sort. When I ceased to believe that the bible was the word of God, I did not give up on the existence of God altogether. I checked out liberal Christianity, and still hoped to be some sort of theist. I read an awful lot, and most books do not change my mind on a subject single handedly. But Sam's book did, because it is thorough, and excellently argued. I admit that when I was an evangelical I probably would've been too close minded to consider what he had to say. I think you have to know that your fundamentist beliefs aren't as "clear and established" as you think before you can give Sam a fair hearing. But I could be wrong even about that. He is persuasive, compelling, and overall, I'd say, correct. So I would recommend this book to anyone, fundamentalist, theist, or atheist.

Michael Tenenbaum, Author - Blessed Assurance? A Demonstration that Christian Fundamentalism is Simply False. Expanded - Limited Edition.

Well worth it - even after reading Dawkins, Dennett and Hitchens
I wasn't sure that it would be worth my time to read the fourth recent book on atheism. I'm glad I did.

The End of Faith adds many ideas and nuances to the conversation. This is especially true in the last two chapters, which other reviewers have found controversial, rambling, or babble, but I found thought-provoking. Harris acknowledges that there are not many answers. However, just as the last 2000 years have seen astronomy develop from positing the earth being the center of the universe, rational experimentation and knowledge development can develop ethics and spiritualism into sound sciences.

Chapter 6 - A Science of Good and Evil - explores ethics from a starting point of zero faith. After making a case against relativism and pragmatism, Harris explores several interesting ethical questions. Like on abortion - Just because we can't determine exactly when humanity starts doesn't mean that you cannot make a moral judgement about a stem cell or a weeks-old fetus. Or a thought-provoking question on tortue that challenges moral intuition - is it really worse to tortue a known criminal for information that would save lives than it is to drop bombs from the air on potentially innocent civilians?

Chapter 7 - Experiments in Consciousness - acknowledges the human desire for spiritualism/mysticism and starts to explore how to grow in those directions in a mindset that does not include faith.